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A very reasonable role playing game with lots of variety in its gameplay and other aspects!

== Star Ocean: The Last Hope ==Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a console only role playing game for the Xbox 360 and for the PS3. The game was developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix (Final Fantasy publishers) and was actually supposed to be an Xbox 360 only game but was later released on the PS3. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the forth game of a series with the very first back on the old SNES. The older versions of Star Ocean were set in normal times, however this game is set in a Sci-Fi world and also on this one you have the ability to control the ship your on. The game takes place centuries before the very first Star Ocean game so its more of a prequel. This Star Ocean is 3 dvd's.

The basic plot of the game is about a young man named Edge (lead character). Star Ocean takes place on earth but in the year S.D. 0010 and in this year the world is facing its toughest battle yet and the possibility of being completely destroyed. Now a young man by the name of Edge and his comrades must fight for the worlds survival and stop a mysterious threat called the Grigori. Can Edge and his group of fighters somehow bring humanity back to the place they call home or is it already to late? The basic plot to the game is short and sweet but it doesn't mean its not a great one as I feel it is one of the better storyline's to a role playing game.

=== Gameplay ===Now prepare yourself because there is a whole lot to add to the gameplay of the game itself. Star Ocean has always had so much to all four of there games. However I will start with the basic controls to the game, they are fairly simple but as you progress further your learn more things and find your using every button more than once in the game and it can be quite hard to remember these controls. The basic menu is easy to navigate and nicely designed, its dark and contains four options New game, load game, settings (all your game settings are found here) and battle simulator (basic training to get you used to the new fighting system). In the game you can only be one character, however another four members join and fight with you. When in the fights you can swap between them if you wish but out of them you are always Edge as the story of the game is his. Throughout playing the game there are hundreds of save points scattered through the world these are called save spheres and it is really simple to save at these points and I would advise that you save your game at everyone you come to. To encounter enemy fights all you need to do is when your free roaming is go up to the monsters and run into them and a battle starts up. The fights are not turn based as you can just go up to them when in battle and hack away at your enemies. Also be careful as you can sometimes encounter different battles such as surprise attacks, ambushes and preemptive attacks.

Another thing I like is that if you have a character with the skill harvesting or mining then you can find some quality items at harvesting/mining spots which are scattered throughout the game. Throughout the game you go to many different towns and in these towns are shops. If visiting a shop and talking to the shopkeeper then you will get four options. Buy items, sell items, accept orders which is basically gathering items for the shopkeeper and also delivering items which is dropping off items he/she has requested. You can buy many different types of items/weapons and armor. In this Star Ocean game there are rings called 'Disintegration Rings' which if you've found can be used in the field of play. For an example one ring you acquire could remove ice blocks leading to new areas or new items and so on, with each ring having different effects. Also every ring has a limited number of uses, however you can recharge them by using a skill one of the characters have or by visiting a ring expert. After getting so far in the game you will be able to control the Calnus (your sky ship) and you will be able to travel between all the different planets and places you have visited or yet to visit and you can also use the ship to restore health by sleeping.

One of the best things about these Star Ocean games is the ability to make your own items with the item creation terminal. The item creation terminal is located on your ship and you can make many new items, weapons and armor here and it is fairly simple and gives you a guide on how to do it. In the party menu screen which can be accessed almost anytime. There is lots of options here one being the ability to set your party leader which is only set so your that character in the battle. You can also do things like manage your items, look at the skills you have learned from raising level, use skill boost to improve your skills, you can change your battle configuration, check character statuses, change tactics, change a characters fighting style, look to see what trophies you have collected from doing certain missions and change in game settings. You get a gameover if all you party characters lose all there HP or if they are all paralyzed in combat. After winning a battle you get a results screen and this basically tells you how much experience you have gained from this fight, how much gold you have received from this fight and the items you have earned if any. There are a whole range of different attacks you can master and use, lots of combos to learn and skills to obtain. Also if you get lost in the game there are numerous adventure hints located in the game. That is pretty much the best of the gameplay, quite impressive right?

=== Characters ===In the game there are five main characters that join your story and help you fight for the existence of the world. The main character is Edge Maverick, he is 19 years old but has a birthday early on making him 20. Edge is a very honest young man with a very strong sense of justice and responsibility. He is volunteering for the maiden voyage of the Space Reconnaissance Force to save humanity from the brink of existence. Edge contains superior circumstantial judgement he often tends to come off as reckless but overall he is a smashing character to play as. Reimi Saionji is a 19 year old young lady born into the illustrious household. Reimi is a character that uses bows and as a young girl she studied archery. She is an extremely kind young lady with a huge heart, however in the game she is always way to hard on herself and sometimes the pressure can get to her. Reimi is a a friend of Edge and helps him on his missions. The other three characters are Lymle a very young kid at the age of 15 who can use the talent of symbology and often summons a creature known as Cerberus. Also Faize who is a Eldarian from another planet and he is a rather interesting character and is also very good with his skills. He also has his own ship. The last character you recruit is Bacchus D-79 and he is basically a scientist that has transformed himself into a cyborg robot with some incredible powers. These are the characters to your story and I feel they are pretty good.

=== The Manual ===Now I don't usually mention the manual to a game but with this one it has everything. It is rammed packed with information about the game, basic plot about it. It tells you everything you need to know from controls, to what you can do on the game and also the characters and other aspects. It looks great, feels great and is great. The design of it is spectacular. The cover is very good, looks one of the better ones. It had 49 pages full of everything about this game so I felt it deserved a mention.

=== Graphics ===This is a bit of a let down to the game. The graphics to previous Star Ocean games were actually really good. The characters in previous games were brilliantly designed and also the world/places you visit are also good, however in Star Ocean: The Last Hope the graphics are to plain. Don't get me wrong there is plenty of colouring and other aspects I just feel the characters, except Edge is rather plain. I feel the scenery is a little ordinary and I also feel the towns almost all look very similar. I was quite impressed with the design of some aspects, for example the battle graphics are actually really good and the graphics of the dungeons/caves/forests and any other places you can encounter endless enemies are very smartly designed and do fit in the game smashingly. Overall I wasn't to chuffed with the graphics to the game even though the movies in the game were really good and made the game feel slightly better in some places.

=== Sound ===The sound to Star Ocean games has always been really good and in this Star Ocean game its no different. The music on the main menu fit perfect into it and suits it really well, also the different music that is used in towns, dungeons and other places fit in nicely and make they game more enjoyable as the music is actually quite catchy. The characters are yet again voice activated and it works well to the games advantage. The battle sound effects are really immense and brings the game to life, with special attacks and combos sounding brilliant. Overall I was very impressed with most of the sound effects and all of the music to this game.

=== Difficulty & Longevity ===The game is very simple in most aspects to the game. Although there is a whole range of variety the controls at first are fairly simple but as you progress in the game you learn more skills and gain other aspects that make the controls slightly more difficult. Other parts of the game like the bosses are fairly easy, the normal monsters are incredibly easy. Also as you progressing you will find plenty of items in case your low on health. Also lots of save points so if you die you can reload and wont have to do much catch up. There aren't many puzzles in the game so no problem there. Some of the places you visit are huge and you mat find you might get lost a couple of times but overall it is a fairly simple game. As for the longevity of the game I think it is quite good. The game is 3 disks and it took me just over 65 hours to complete and to be fair that is quite good even though its 3 disks, it probably could of lasted me another 10-15 hours if I did everything on the game. Overall I was impressed with the length of the game and think its a real credit to it.

=== Good Bits ===*Lots of variety to its gameplay make this game worthy of playing.*Some brilliant sound effects bring the game to life!*Over 60+ hours of gameplay and lots of places to visit.*A fairly easy game that would suit most.*A lot of bosses and normal monsters and an interesting list of characters.

=== Bad Bits ===*Some of the graphics lack any real intent.*The controls later in the game can actually be rather tricky.*No multiplayer options or online options. *No downloadable content for the European version of the game.

=== Other Bits ===Star Ocean: The Last Hope is actually a rather good role playing game. i have always been a fan of the Star Ocean series but I do feel this is the worst out of the games, however this is only because the others are very good and this one still isn't to shabby. Although most of the graphics are very lackluster the game does offer a wide range of variety in its gameplay features and also a wide range of exploring in the game as well. There are lots of places to go, lots of missions to do and loads of side missions as well. A real let down to the game is the fact there is no downloadable content for the European version where in Japan they have add ons and other aspects. I feel these role playing games deserve some sort of multiplayer modes or options as it would benefit the game more. I actually do like the game and I would recommend it to anyone thats not to fussed what the actual graphics are like and also I would recommend it to fans of role playing games or even a game with a smashing storyline. Although the characters look slightly plain they are a rather good bunch of characters to play as (in battles). I also feel the cover to the game is brilliant and one of the best I have seen, definitely one of my personal favourites. The game has a rating of 12+ which seems pretty much perfect and I wouldn't complain with this aspect. I actually bought the game from my uncle who sold his Xbox 360 and I paid £5 for it and thats definitely value for money. The game is now selling on Amazon for ££17.99 brand new and this is mainly because it will probably turn rare in time with it being a game from Japan. Overall I would recommend the game and I would also give the game a pretty respectable 7/10!

Review also on Ciao under the username: MrBrightside1987!

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If you have a 360, then you have no excuse not to own this game. Go buy it. NOW.

Last Hope is the latest in the Star Ocean series, but there's no need to worry about continuity or anything like that. For one thing the series isn't linear so you can play one without playing the previous, like with Final Fantasy. One top of that it's a prequel anyway.

The game has you playing as Edge Maverick. It begins shortly after World War 3, the Earth in turmoil, with nothing able to live above the service because of the state it is in. As such, humans develop interspacial travel so that they might branch out into space and find a new planet that they can live on. This is where Edge and the SRF come in. However, the ship is attacked on the first planet, leaving Edge the only officer uninjured. Due to this he is placed in charge of the Calnus and sent on his mission to investigate the great star ocean.

Well, that took longer than expected to explain. But it is an RPG and with 3 discs, you're going to get a lot of plot going on. And the World War 3 angles seems to be a bit of hidden cynicism at the current state of affairs. But noone wants to hear about that, so let's just talk about the actual gameplay. The battle system is one of the finest I've seen in all my years of gaming. Having said this, the battles are fairly easy even on the hardest difficulty. Once you've got your first healer in the party you'll have no trouble beating the entire game. The bonus scenes on deck really let you get involved with the characters, and you can really empathise with them later on. But more importantly, it's just so much fun.

In conclusion, Last Hope is a game which I would recommend for anyone, whether they are a fan of RPGs or not. The battle system is new and innovative to be interesting and it presents just enough of a challenge to be interesting.

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A good game to RPG fans

Star Ocean Last hope well in my personal opinion i find it as a very good game the only thing i find wrong is the somewhat lack of facial expressions but you will get past that.

The game-play of this game is fantastic the battle system is a free roam system so you aren't restricted to simply waiting your turn you will need to sometimes outrun your enemy or in the games terms Blindside them which is the art of well timing your move and getting behind the enemy this is covered in the game tutorial although very easy to do, although some of the moves can seem a bit flashy and i mean very flashy so its not Epileptic friendly Although through my first run through this game it appeared to be very easy some parts of the game require your decision on answers so you can be mean to one person but nice to another these decisions will determine your relationship if it is good enough you can pair the two into the same room on the ship (games for 12+)

The Biggest problem i have with this game although understandable in why it had to be done is how characters join your party there are A LOT of characters no were near shown in the manual but some characters join later i mean very late on which is bothersome since you got used to the characters your playing as, and one major problem i have is the Wizards are underpowered if you play as a blindside you will notice that the damage they do is Very Crazy prepared to magicians and it is very easy to blindside so in my opinion wizards are a waste of time only the healers are valued.

The storyline as not to spoil it is overall good there are several moments you don't expect and it is quite different with a wide range of fighting but still the 3 fundamentals Warrior, Wizard and archer i recommend this game to and who want a nice RPG to play

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A good RPG

Star Ocean The Last Hope is the latest in the series from RPG giants Square Enix and Tri Ace.

The game starts with you as Edge Maverick a crew member on a ship called the Calnus, you and a few other ships are sent on a mission to explore new planets and it all goes wrong, you crash on a planet, lose one of your friends. You then go on your journey to find your friend but on your way you'll find something more sinister lurking in the galaxy.

The characters in an RPG need to be good but in this game they range from interesting like Edge, Crowe, Bacchus and Reimi to damn annoying, Lymle, Sarah, Meracle, they are sometimes so incredibly stupid and thick it makes you want to turn the game off! This isn't helped by the very mediocre voice acting. The story and the good characters do carry the game though and not all hope is lost!

The battle system is one of the best I have experienced in an RPG, it evolves from the system found in the previous game, you have full movement control of your character, can use standard melee attacks, and use special skills, this game makes it so you can chain your skills upto 6 at a time and also adds a cool blindside move where you dash behind your enemy for some critical hits. You can also switch to any of your party members which adds quite alot of depth to the game.

The game basically has two elements, cut scene mode and game mode, if you don't have alot of time to sit down and play then this isn't going to be for you. Sometimes you will be fighting through big dungeons which can take upwards of 2 hours to complete before you find a save point. The cut scenes can be very long too easily surpassing the 40 minute mark! Someone needs to work on proper pacing for the next Star Ocean game.

If it wasn't for the few problems I mentioned, poor characters and poor pacing it would have been one of my favourite games ever! It's still definitely worth your time if you are a fan of RPGs though.

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Fun game shame about the voice acting

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the forth in the series of Star Ocean games, and made by Square Enix of Final Fantasy fame, knowing this I had high hopes for this game, yet while it is a fun and engaging game, with a huge amount of content it is also a game with a critical flaw. The voice acting, now in some games this wouldn't be a big deal, but this is an RPG, it has huge amounts of cut sconces, poor voice acting, can render a game near unplayable, and at times I was tempted to just play through the game with subtitles and turn the audio off. Yet despite this it remains a fun and enjoyable game, the story line while heavily clichéd, and being very much typical to the genre, still has just enough to differentiate itself from all the other JRPG's out there.A few other features that are of particular significance are the item creation system, which adds another aspect to the game rather than simply going to each town and purchasing an identical set of weapons but with slightly higher specs, and the real time nature of combat, which ensures that combat is more than simply levelling up high enough to beat each area, although it does still have certain aspects of that. Graphics are impressive enough, although nothing special, what you would expect from an Xbox 360 game. One further annoyance is that due to the limitations of the DVD format, the game is spread across three discs, and while in the main game, this is just a matter of changing the disk every 10 hours or so, in post game areas, having to change the disk every time you want to switch from say a bonus dungeon on disk 3 to the battle coliseum on disk 2 does get quite annoying.So should you buy this the answer is simple, are you a fan of JRPG's (Japanese Role Play games), then yes if not then this game is unlikely to appeal to you, it is very much a game for existing fans rather than one that will attract new ones to the genre.

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I am new to the Star Ocean franchise when I bought into the last hope so I was glad to find out it was a prequel - a very wise move on there part considering they will probably have a lot of new people buy into the game. With no experience with the games before I was pretty forgien to this type of RPG but as I had experience with games from Squareenix before I roughly knew what to expect.

Star Ocean 4 lets you play as Edge Maverick who is sent into space (with a team) as a mission to locate a suitable new planet after Earth is comsumed by the nuclear fallout from WW3. Of course, the mission does not go to plan and so the story begins. The plot is good but could be presented a lot better. Even though the graphics and charcters are original and interesting it seems that every character has to repeat what you already know and after battling for 40 minutes straight you can get launched into a 15 minute cutscreen straight away.

The storyline may not be the best aspect but the gameplay certainly is. The gameplay is an action RPG - all the fights happen in real time but only after you encounter an enemy. The fights take place in a segregated area - I like this as at an one time it never gets to crazy. One important point to note is that with all the extras in this such as power leveling, ability to customize your party and so much more, the combat never gets boring.

The experience points and other leveling up on the game allows you to customize your character how you want and each character you meet has there own style of fighting so you really have a lot of different ways in which you can make your party and manipulate the individual style of fighting.

The endings of the story changes depending on which characters like each other so you have to play through multiple times to see all the different endings. Another great point about the game is there are unlockable diffuculties but you can start them with all your unlocks from the previous game - allowing you to start over without having to wipe slate clean.

Colletion nuts and completionists will not be dissapointed either - there is plenty of extras to do including: Secret dungeons, battle trophies, weapon collection, enemies too beat and much more.

All in all, this is a great game that will have you amused for hours due to the sheer amount of content, never mind anything else and if you are a fan of RPG's - this game is a must have.

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Amazing game, worth every penny with so much to do you will be playing it for years

I have being waiting years for this game as I am a huge Star Ocean Fan. So here goes my very long review...lol

** The game/story **

The game is a prequal to the very first Star Ocean game however it's not got anything special to make it seem like a sequal, you could actually class it as a separate game. The story is ok but not as good as I thought it was going to be, don't get me wrong I still liked it but when I heard it was a prequal I thought it would have more to do with the first one, it basically just has some people in who might be ancestors to a character in the first game but it never really confirms this however I have only completed the game once and again I believe there is multiple endings to the game.

** The battle system **

The battle system, like in most Star Ocean games, mainly Star Ocean 3, was the one I loved for fighting before this one! This one is like that but more advanced and more to do, I love it but I do sometimes get nostalgic about the other one.

The battle is action-rpg style, in order to fight you have to run into the enemy. If you run into them head on, it will be a normal fight, if you run into them from behind it will be a preemtive strike, if they run into you and you have your back to them, it will be a surprise attack. You can run about freely in the battle button bashing and combining skills together to perform combos which can be chained together much like in star ocean 3, each time you chain them together you get something called a cancel bonus, this makes the next skill in the chain stronger than usual. You do this by combining skills together with the left and right triggers, at first you can only have one skill assigned to the triggers but at later points in the game you can have 6 in total (3 on each trigger). The only thing I dislike about the battle is how hard it is to target a certain enemy when doing attacks, there is no targetting system except when using items and magic. In order to pick a target for attacks you have to get close to them and hit them it can be a pain in the butt to pick the enemy you want but once you have it you can lock on to it.

** Battle Technique: Blindslides **

There is also another new feature to the game, called blindslides. This is if you have played World Of Warcraft, very much like the rogue skill shadowstep. You need to charge this skill up in order to pull it off, but it is very easy to do once you know how. You charge by holding down the jump button and then flicking the left analog stick (analog stick, is that right, is it called that on the x360? lol anyways...) you will then see the game go in slow mode (which looks awesome :D) and then attempt to jump behind the enemy in order to attack them (you perform a critical attack when you do a blindslide, which causes more damage and if you kill the enemy with a critical you will gain a EXP gem for your bonus gauge, more on this below). Later enemies can counter your blindslides, which is a pain in the butt when this happens as it breaks your bonus gauge, if you time it right you can still pull off a blindslide to enemies that can counter them, you just have to wait for them to start their attack animation and hope you jump behind them without getting hit.

** Rush Gauge **

Another new feature, much like in Star Ocean 3, there is a guage but not a fury gauge (though you can still have that skill later). This guage goes up as you do damage and receive it. It also goes up when you charge for blindslides. You can enter rush mode which has certain benefits, such as stat boosts, and increased speed + more crit chance. You can also enter rush combo mode to unleash massive amounts of damage by pressing the buttons that appear on screen (this can save your back many times later in the game).

** Beat System **

This is also a new feature, there are 3 types, strike, normal and burst. Strike is more for melee fighters and pulling off blindslides, it provides stat boosts to attack and gives great blindslide bonuses when your rank increases such as freezing near by enemies when pulling off a blindslide.

The normal rank allows for increased stats in ALL STATS but you do not gain any bonuses.

Burst mode is more for ranged people and casters/healers. I tend to find the rush gauge goes up a lot quicker and it lasts a lot longer, I usually have all my people on burst and Edge (the main character) on strike, I have 2 casters and a ranged character and then Edge. Burst mode gives a huge increase to HP and a few other stats. It's not really for pulling off blindslides, you will find that really pointless to do if you want blindslides use strike.

** Using Items **

To heal and recover from status ailments or to simply use items you open a menu and the game halts while you look (thank god, because there is so many items available lol). Much like a traditional RPG you then just click the item you want to use and off you go.

** Magic! - Good old symbology! **

There is also magic in the game which is called symbology much like in Star Ocean 3 but with a slightly different system to level the magic up. You collect SP (skill points) which can be used to boost your skills, each time you boost a skill the cost upgrading that skill will rise. There are many ways to get SP, you can gain party SP very easily via mining, gathering herbs, opening chests etc and this provides some exp too which will apply to all characters in your party not just the active ones. There is also another way which will be talked about in the below section.

** Bonus Gauge! **

Yes it is back! and this time it is slightly different. I found it much easier to keep the bonus gauge in this one, which is good but I did miss how angry I got in Star Ocean 3 when I would work to build my bonus then lose it, in this one it did not annoy me so much when I lost it. There are 4 different gems that you can get in order to give a boost to one of the following: 1. Increased EXP (levels you up and makes you stronger) after battles. 2. Increased Fol (money) after battles. 3. Recover HP/MP after battles. (restores your hit points and mana, hit points are your life, mana is used for magic and skills). 4. SP (skill points). SP is not gained from battles, you gaini it when you level up from EXP however if you have a green gem (SP gem) you will gain 1SP for every SP gem you have for every battle, so say if you have 5 green gems you will gain 5 party SP every fight, if you fight enemies weak that die in one hit you could still get 5SP for that fight resulting in easy SP (don't do this on your first play or it will make the game too easy).

In order to get each gem you have to do a certain thing in battle and out of battle for one gem, here is how you get them: 1. Increased EXP - in order to add these gems to the bonus gauge you need to make sure the killing blow is a critical, you can do this via blindslides, equipment with +crit will help here and the skill called critical that will increase your crit chance will be of a big help too. 2. Increased FOL (money) - in order to add these gems to the bonus board you need to kill multiple enemies at once. 3. Recover HP/MP - this one is very easy, you simply need to kill the enemy using only skills. 4. SP (skill points) - the not so easy one (depending on the area). This one you need to be on the field and you need to have 2 enemies or more close to each other before you enter the battle, if you succeed when you are in a fight, the moment you defeat the enemies, you will get ambushed by the other enemies and this will provide you with a SP gem.

** Ok battle system and story aside, onto the extras! **

My god there is way too much to do and I love it haha. I have being playing the game for 100hours and have just beaten the first secret dungeon which seemed quite big but I have just found out there is another dungeon, the proper secret dungeon if you like, consider this small one as the test dungeon needed to unlock the real challenge. Even in this small dungeon the end boss is way harder than the main games last boss, I got to him not realizing how hard he would be and hadn't saved my game, only one of my characters could damage him as you have to use skills or weapons without an element as he is immune to all elements, obviously I did not know this then so I got my butt handed to me on a plate. I prepared and went back to fight him last night and kicked his butt, now I am about to go see what the real challenge is like...

** The Real Challenge **

Now I have not being in here yet, but there is a wondering dungeon, the games secret hardcore dungeon. This dungeon is supposedly huge with randomly generated floors, meaning each time you enter it will be different, the games high end treasures and monsters are in here. Fans of Star Ocean 3 will remmember the Ethereal Queen, wel she is back and no doubt as hard or harder than in Star Ocean 3 (I never actually thought her in that one but would like to one day and she looked extremely hard).

This dungeon has several requirements, you will be asked to do certain things like collect certain items in order to progress, every 2 floors there is a boss battle (just entered the dungeon, there is an infinite amount of floors, it just repeats after 20 floors, you can repeat the same bosses ever 2 floors from then on, so from floor 20 it is repeating the same stuff to get items, experience money and to just have fun). There is also no save points in this dungeon at all and if you leave you will have to start all over again, the items for the task will dissapear from your inventory if you leave the dungeon. I can not say much more about what you can do in here as I have not gone in yet but will be very soon and may update this article when I have completed it...or died lol.

** Even more side stuff **

Yes there is even more, there is quests throughout the game (there are quite a lot as well! It makes me feel like it should/was an online game at some point lol). Quests give you exp and items, I have not done that many myself this time and if I have it has pretty much happened without realizing, just happened as I progressed the game, as some of the quests are very easy, just kill certain number of mobs, collect this, make this (more on this in a second) etc.

There are orders that shops place, you can deliver these orders (once you have the needed items). This is not all that special but still something I did not expect from the game so I was quite pleased with, you can take certain items to the shop (they request it) and when you have they reward you in fol (money) and experience, and if I remember correctly party SP too.

** Are you ready to fight fight fight!? **

Oh yes the Colliseum is back again! This time much more challenging, the enemies seemed to have shed loads of HP and made the battles rather long however I think the reason for this was I was under equipped I had not upgraded my equipment for a very long time. You can move up in ranks until you become number 1. There are several modes you can play such as Solo, Team, Survival. Solo you fight alone and try to be the best. Team you can use all your party to try and become the top rank. Survival is all your party but it is like a mixture of tough enemies and easy enemies and you play up to 10 rounds, each round you progress and gain more battle points the more you do but if you choose to continue and lose the battle then you lose everything you have gained so far.

** Item Creation **

Yes it is back but this time much simpler to understand and not so annoying...You can make many items again...and some of them are really useful and some of them like in previous game are just not!Certain quests will also require you to make items.

To make an item you need to invent the recipe first by selecting 3 of your party people and putting them in the 3 empty slots, you pick which people based on what item you want to make, each character has a different skill level in each profession. For example Edge is good at crafting. Once the recipes have being created you can then see what materials you need in order to make it. If you have them you can simple create the item.

** Battle Trophies - Yes they are back ! :D woo hoo! **

Oh boy, they are back, and there are tons of them! Forget Star Ocean 3 having battle trophies for everyone, Star Ocean 4 has battle trophies for each character! there are absolutely loads and this time it actually feels worth it to collect them. If you collect them you unlock things, the first unlock is a new voice collection (not that impressive) but the 2nd unlock is a level cap removal (this is cool, gives you a reason to collect battle trophies and another reason is for achievements, if you are an achievement driven maniac then this is something you will like, it will take a lot of time to get all battle trophies so be warned).

** Achievements: **

To be honest, I thought they would of somehow made the battle trophies the achievements but no we got battle trohpies and achievements! haha. There are 50 Achievements to unlock in the game, some of them secret and some of them easy to get, however a lot of them are hard to get or long winded, I currently have around 18 unlocked but I still have a lot to do on the game! 100 hours playing and I still have a lot to do...haha it doesn't get any better than this.

** Conclusion: **

Wow this has got to be my biggest review ever, I love these games very much, and although I was hoping for a bit more in the story I would still recommend you buy this game no matter if you are into these types of games or not, it can be very fun.

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As the headline suggests, a great way to fill the RPG-void until FF XIII

I've been searching for a decent J-RPG for the 360 for a long while, but I think I've found one that I can enjoy and get through. While I'm normally a fan of turn based, menu driven combat - Star Ocean:TLH features real-time combat not unlike a beat 'em up but with RPG elements in there as well (using potions and spells by selecting from a menu). One of the original features of the combat are things called 'blindsides' which basically counter attacks but you have to 'charge' them up before you use them. There is also a meter at the side which fills with different bonus' and last until you either exit the game, or get hit with a critical attack. This offers a lot of strategy to the combat aspect of the game, deciding which gems to go for to get different rewards at the end of a battle.

I haven't got very far into the game yet, but it is highly enjoyable. The story doesn't seem too great at the moment, but the thing that will keep you coming back is the fantastic combat.

If you are a fan of J-RPG's, try it out - I wasn't expecting much but am enjoying it a lot at the moment!

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Product Details

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the latest release in the celebrated science fiction and fantasy Star Ocean RPG series. This prequel set during the aftermath of Earth's fictional World War III combines sci-fi and fantasy elements spanning multiple planets and the vastness of space itself to recount the origins of the Star Ocean Universe. Exhilarating combat expands upon the franchise's famous real-time battle system, introducing amazing graphics and next-generation visual effects brought to life on the Xbox 360 gaming system.